rat infection of the eye.

Question
hi there. i am looking for answers for my daughter.
she has a hairless rat that developed and infection behind its eye. you could see the white through the eye and the eye itself is much bigger than its counterpart.
she was given antibiotics at the vet and was told her options were to either have the eye removed which they are wanting to charge $300 for or to have the rat put to sleep as a permanent state. the antibiotics are helping. the white is gone from inside the eye and she can blink over that eye again. it is still inflamed and we do understand that she may be blind in the one eye.
now i cant afford the $300 but i want to make sure that i have  used all other alternatives before having it put to sleep. do you have any ideas or thoughts as to what i can do or who i could talk to?

Answer
Hi Jeremy

I JUST went through this 2 months ago with my male rat. His eye was inflamed and white and he went blind but I opted for
Enucleation because the infection would not clear up despite aggressive treatment.
I would not put the rat to sleep over this. That would be a shame.
$300 is a tad hefty to perform this procedure unless the vet was going to offer that the rat stay at the clinic and have complete nursing care and medication etc...for at least 3 to 5 days, and this includes post op visits as well. If this is done in just one day and your expected to bring the rat home and care for him yourself, that is pretty steep.
I would say that it should not exceed $175 total.
The surgery is fairly simple and the rat heals fast and they don't mind being blind because the eyesight is already terrible.
You can always find another vet for another opinion. Did you discuss a payment plan with the vet?
The vet is probably worried the eye will detach itself and come out of the socket on its own which can be painful for the rat. This can occur if there is still swelling.
I want to show you a photo of my rat but I am not sure if it will show up here or not so if you want to, you can view it at this link:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j71/sugarfoxx/IMG_30752.jpg


<img src="http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j71/sugarfoxx/IMG_30752.jpg">

ANyhow, if you want me to help you find another vet to help, let me know. It would be sad if the rat had to be put down for something like this that can be resolved so easily. If I knew more about the infection I could understand also more about why the vet wants the eye removed. The infection can travel elsewhere so he may be worried about that too.

Please let me know ....sorry this took so long to answer. It was put in the QUESTION POOL so it goes unanswered for a long period of time first before we are given the question.

regards

Sandra